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Thursday, March 18, 2010

BOTTOM LINE Will sweet words cut any ice?

Barrister
Harun ur Rashid

The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee arrived in Dhaka on February 19 for a three day visit. Her entourage
includes ministers, businessmen, media and eminent cultural media personalities
who are popular in Bangladesh. The visit has drawn widespread attention since
it was due to her opposition that the Teesta water agreement could not be
signed.

Mamata is quintessentially a
politician and observers say “she came, she charmed the people of Bangladesh
with her personality and she left, with reassurance of love for Bangladesh.”

On thorny issue of the Land Boundary
Agreement which envisaged the swapping of enclaves between the two countries.
Ms. Banerjee had earlier opposed that too but recently softened her stand.

The West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee sought to reassure the people of Bangladesh ahead of her
crucial meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina: “You may have questions in
your mind about Teesta. Please keep faith in me about that. You have some
problems, we have some problems. I will discuss that with Hasinaji on February
21 when I meet her. Leave it to us. Don't worry about it. Padma, Megna, Ganga,
Jamuna -- we have never seen divisions there. No one will be able to divide us
even if they want to,” Ms. Banerjee said in Dhaka.

Her story seems to be that the
Central Water Commission is a premier technical organisation of India in the
field of water resources and is presently functioning as an attached office of
the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India. Teesta River flows from
Sikkim and Sikkim has many water projects which deplete flow of water to West
Bengal. If Sikkim can be persuaded by the Modi government to release more water
to West Bengal, the chief minister will then be able to share the water with
Bangladesh.It may be recalled that in September 2011, Ms. Banerjee had pulled
out of a delegation to Dhaka led by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was
expected to make a major announcement on the sharing of the water of the
Teesta. She claimed the pact would harm the interests of the people of north Bengal
through which the Teesta flows. Her move had embarrassed Manmohan Singh and he
was not able to sign the pact.

But the question mark over Teesta
remains for two reasons; first the election in West Bengal will take place in
2016 and, second, the BJP and Trinamool Congress of Banerjee are likely to
contest the election. It is reported that it is not desirable politically to
sign the Teesta water sharing agreement with Bangladesh before the state
election.

Furthermore, Ms. Banerjee seems to
have become politically weak. The divisions among the leaders have led to the
loss of the two by-election results in the state. BJP, which has been gaining
ground in West Bengal riding the Saradha scam, has posed the biggest political
threat to the TNC of Banerjee at the West Bengal election.

It may be recalled that the Saradha
scam seems to have tainted the reputation of Ms. Banejee and her party leaders.
The Kolkata-based Saradha Group is said to have defrauded thousands of
investors, including poor people, in West Bengal, leading to the arrest of its
owner Sudipta Sen. Saradha Group had over 10,000 registered chit funds
across the country and with an aggregate turnover of Rs. 30,000 crore per
annum.

The shadow thrown by the Saradha
scandal is slowly creeping up the hierarchy of the Trinamool Congress. After
two Rajya Sabha MPs, the CBI arrested Madan Mitra, one of most powerful
ministers in Mamata Banerjee's cabinet, for his alleged involvement in the
multi-crore chit fund scam.

The BJP president alleged that Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee was more interested in trying to save her scam-tainted
party leaders than developing the state. Shah also reminded people that the
Mamata government had opposed an NIA probe into the Burdwan blast in January,
throwing a question to his audience: “Will you allow such a state government
which gives priority to vote-bank politics over national security?”

The question is why did she come to
Dhaka? There are several reasons, some of which deserve mention. First she
wants to soften the minds of the BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Modi,
towards her by visiting Bangladesh so as to enable her to become a “goodwill
messenger” between the Bangladesh government and the Modi government in
resolving long-pending issues between Bangladesh and India. Second, she wants
to demonstrate to the people of West Bengal that she is popular with the
government and people of Bangladesh with a view to winning the 2016 legislative
election in West Bengal. Third, although her party has won 34 seats out of total
42 in the Lok Sabha in the May parliamentary election, BJP's overwhelming
victory with 282 seats (BJP and its allies NDA =336) has diminished her
political leverage with the Modi government..

Let us now wait how the political
game is played out between TNC and BJP in the coming months.